Category Biology/Biotechnology

Older people who have never taken part in sustained exercise programmes have the same ability to build muscle mass as highly trained master athletes of a similar age, according to new research at the University of Birmingham. The research shows that even those who are entirely unaccustomed to exercise can benefit from resistance exercises such as weight training.

In the study, published in Frontiers in Physiology, researchers in the University of Birmingham’s School of Sport and Exercise Science compared muscle-building ability in two groups of older men...

Scientists have developed electronic skin technology for robots or electronic devices to feel pain through sense of touch. Expected to be applied in humanoid that needs 5 human senses and patients wearing prosthetic hands.

The attempt to mimic human’s five senses led to the development of innovative electronic devices such as camera and TV, which are inventions that dramatically changed human life. As a result, many scientists are continuously performing research to imitate tactile, olfactory, and palate senses and tactile sensing is expected to be the next mimetic technology for various reasons...

Investigators have developed a ‘lab on a chip’ technology that can simulate different levels of Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease progression. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) – the accumulation of liver fat in people who drink little or no alcohol – is increasingly common around the world, and in the United States, it affects between 30 and 40 percent of adults. Currently, there are no approved drugs for the treatment of NAFLD, which is predicted to soon become the main cause of chronic liver problems and the need for liver transplantation.

Now a team led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has developed a “lab on a chip” technology that can simulate different levels of NAFLD progression in cells across a sing...

Scientists have found a vulnerability in cancer cells that could make them more susceptible to being destroyed by the immune system, according to a new report in eLife. The discovery could make it possible to circumvent the resistance starting to be seen with a new generation of immunotherapy treatments called checkpoint inhibitors.

Scientists have been heralding immunotherapy treatments as breakthroughs in cancer research as they have prolonged life in some people with previously untreatable cancers. However, not everyone responds to immunotherapy and recent studies suggest that some cancers are able to escape the effects of checkpoint inhibitor drugs...